While Charmian protested that no one save Dion had ever been heard with
favour by Barine, and related many incidents of her former life,
Cleopatra's thoughts were with Antony. Like the image of the beloved
dead, the towering figure of the Roman hero rose before her mind, but she
recalled him only as he was prior to the battle of Actium. She desired
and expected nothing more from the broken-spirited man, whose condition
was perhaps her own fault. But she had resolved to atone for her guilt,
and would do so at the cost of throne and life. This settled the
account. Whatever her remaining span of existence might add or subtract,
was part of the bargain.

The entrance of Alexas interrupted her. With fiery passion he expressed
his regret that he had been defrauded by base intrigues of the right
bestowed upon him to pass sentence upon a guilty woman. This was the
more difficult to bear because he was deprived of the possibility of
providing for the pursuit of the fugitive. Antony had honoured him with
the commission to win Herod back to his cause. He was to leave
Alexandria that very night. As nothing could be expected in this matter
from the misanthropic Imperator, he hoped that the Queen would avenge
such an offence to her dignity, and adopt severe measures towards the
singer and her last lover, Dion, who with sacrilegious hands had wounded
the son of Caesar.

But Cleopatra, with royal dignity, kept him within the limits of his
position, commanded him not to mention the affair to her again, and then,
with a sorrowful smile, wished him success with Herod, in whose return to
the lost cause of Antony, however, much as she prized the skill of the
mediator, she did not believe.

When he had retired, she exclaimed to Charmian: "Was I blind? This man